Pinterest vs Instagram: Key content marketing attributes

1. Pinterest vs Instagram: Audience

Pinterest reaches an 80% female audience and the average female pinner has made 158 pins according to RJ Metrics.

Pinterest’s key feature is aspirational. Users turn to Pinterest to find things that they need and want. Critical for marketers is that Pinterest puts your products in context. It’s ready made for couch shopping.

Instagram is a top 10 mobile app according to comScore and has about 30% reach among US smartphone mobile media users 18+.

Even more important, Instagram is still on its audience growth trajectory and expected to reach 37.3 million users in 2014 according to eMarketer.

Actionable Visual Content Marketing Tips:

Know your key audience, influencers and public beyond their basic demographics. Get into their heads to understand their deeper emotional motivations and interests that help your marketing efforts by creating marketing personae.

Leverage the power of a social media persona to better appreciate how your target market uses different social media platforms.

2. Pinterest vs Instagram: User activity driver

Pinterest is the “I want”, aspirational social media where participants and shoppers turn when they need something. For many, it’s the digital version of catalogs and magazines.

Instagram is the ultimate me, me, me, social media option. It turbo-charges FOMO (aka Fear Of Missing Out) not to mention fueling your community’s envy and jealousy by adding a better than reality gloss to photographs.

Actionable Visual Content Marketing Tips:

Take advantage of Pinterest’s visual shopping. Who needs a mall when you can shop from the comfort of your living room couch??? Create different boards for each of your product categories. Where possible leverage the strength of food and drinks, DIY and crafts, and home decor on Pinterest.

Set up a place for Instagramming your product in your retail or physical location. Make people want to share the experience.

3. Pinterest vs Instagram: Content marketing approach

Pinterest is the home of social media content curation. It spotlights important people, products and brands with related commentary. At the heart of every pinboard is aggregating the best looking visual information.

Pinners are taster arbitors. Pinners even try to create the best possible pin.

Pinterest encompasses more than just photos. It spotlights other visual content such design and illustration. Infographics and presentations have a home on Pinterest as well.

Instagram is about social media visual content creation. Its easy-to-use filters enhance the images to make the subjects and by association the photographer look better. Instagram is Instamatic amateur photography meets professional level quality.

Integrate your own content with the best of other people’s content. This helps build your reputation as a thought leader and a tastemaker. Remember social media is a multi-directional conversation.

Incorporate your own content into your mix by adding Instagram. This is a great way to show your offering’s glamour.

Promote the power of your audience’s content by showcasing their Instagram images. A number of retailers are starting to do this. It’s a great way to leverage user generated content.

Check what your competitors are doing on Pinterest and Instagram. What are they doing that’s successful that you’re not? Also check out the top performers on each platform. Take note of ideas that are worth adapting and making your own.

4. Pinterest vs Instagram: Content distribution

Pinterest is the seek, find and collect stuff I like and want platform. Its sweet spot is the fact that it retains pinners and their interactions increase over time. On average, a female pinner posts 42 pins in year 1 and increases to 152 pins by year 4!

Pinterest is truly a me-time activity that peaks post dinner. Your content gets shared by other people: both from other sources to Pinterest and on Pinterest.

Instagram is snap and share. While mainly on Instagram, images can also be shared to other platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter.

Instagram brand frequency is about 5 images per week. Take part in relevant memes and trends.

Both Pinterest and Instagram leverage the power of hashtags to extend their content reach.

2 Responses to Pinterest Vs Instagram: Visual Content Marketing

Heidi.. I’m growing a brand, and will soon like to make it a business. I’m starting everything off by growing the name recognition through Instagram. Engaging a lot – Comments, Likes, Tags, etc, along with posting a lot of content with proper hashtags (sometimes i over #, sometimes I under#, sometimes it seems just right)..

I have the same name for all social platforms, (twitter, fb, tumblr, etc) and I figure once I build an audience of genuine followers on Instagram, that I can use them to turbo charge the audience on my next endeavor, Pinterest. Then use IG and P to boost Twitter, and so on.. Is this a legitimate way of building a social media fueled follower base?

I have the .com in the brand name as well, and my ultimate goal is to have loads of followers from all social platforms and then funnel them all to one common site, my website of the same name/brand/product.. I am new to this all. Do you have any tips for me to reach my goal using these platforms? I love instagram and it seems to be building my brand quickly as i see more new followers and some great comments, like “i absolutely love this” or “love your IG account”, but i cant help but feel like I’m going to slow and may be missing out on great advice

Thank you Heidi for sharing this insightful article! It really
shows the comparison between Pinterest and Instagram. Surely, it helps a lot
of marketers in choosing the best platform in terms of visual content
marketing. Good to know and witness the stunning differences
between the two that signifies their own motives and function as social media
platforms.